Election Day Nov. 2!
It’s still lovely, warm, and dry here–days in the 70s and 80s, nights in the 40s. It’s about time to harvest our eatin’ apples and make some pies, and give the wormy ones to the horses for treats.
Just about the only person having a bad day in Colorado this morning is our Democratic U.S. “Senator” Michael Bennet, who awoke to a front page Denver Post story headlined “GOP’s Buck Polling Ahead.” (That was the headline in the print edition that hit my front walk, anyway. The internets currently have a different headline, but the news is still bad for our never-run-a-statewide-campaign “Senator.”)
I’ve been wondering when our one Denver daily was going to notice that Weld Co. D.A. Ken Buck (R) is ahead in the U.S. Senate Race. Real Clear Politics has reported on several polls that have shown Buck opening up a convincing lead over Bennet in the past week or so, but the Voice of the Rocky Mountain Establishment is still loathe to admit that they backed the wrong, Washington-born horse, friends.
Now, I’m not saying that Andrew Romanoff would be ahead in the polls if he had won the August primary. It’s a rough year for Dems–mostly because of their own cowardice and lack of conviction–and for incumbents (ditto), and Bennet is both. I don’t think that’s the case. But Coloradoans sure as $hit don’t want Barack Obama and Rahm Emmanuel telling them who should be their U.S. Senator.
What I also don’t see in the news coverage of our statewide races is that this is largely due to the ineptitude and bad judgment of our soon-to-be-departed one-term Governor Bill Ritter, who 1) appointed the unknown and untested Bennet to the U.S. Senate, and then 2) decided that he didn’t want to be Governor any more because he wanted to spend more time with his family. John “Hick” Hickenlooper is only up for Governor because of the implosion of the Colorado Republicans, who are left with the choice of embarassing incompetence (Don Maes, the R candidate) or the crazzy (Tommy “the Tanc” Tancredo).
I’ll say it again: if a woman guv had put the Dems in this kind of pickle, it’s all we’d be hearing and reading in the news. Case in point: Don Maes (“Bicycles are evidence that Denver is handing its sovereignty to the UN! No, I really drove to the moon and back this year! I wasn’t fired from my job with the police department, I was working under cover for the Kansas Bureau of Investigation!”) is nearly ignored by the national media, whereas Christine O’Donnell is the gift horse that Dems love to kick and kick again, just as the Dems were eager to pin all of George W. Bush’s sins of incompetence and ignorance on Sarah Palin in 2008.
Funny, isn’t it? Funny ha-ha, and funny strange. Male incompetence just isn’t worth talking about, whereas female incompetence is a national joke.
Historiann 
Do you really think Ritter’s incompetence makes for nearly as much news fodder as O’Donnell’s own brand of genius? Because O’Donnell really is whack-a-doodle, and while Ritter may not be especially brilliant, I haven’t notice him coming out with anything truly crazy.
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Maes is I think the better comparison to O’Donnell: tea party-backed candidate who turns out to be grossly unqualified and possibly unstable. I do think it’s odd that Ritter’s role in the unfolding Dem fiasco has been totally overlooked.
Maybe it will be a point of discussion if and when Bennet loses. We’ll see, but I doubt it. He’s gotten a total pass from what I’ve seen.
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Historiann:
I can’t remember if I told you my final decision on all this, but I’ve decided to undervote on the Senate race. My Blue Dog Democratic Congressmen is actually a really nice guy and the district’s too conservative for anyone else, so I’ll gladly vote for him. However, neither of those mitigating factors apply to the Senate race so I’m leaving my ballot blank.
Holding my nose and voting for Hickenlooper is made much easier by the quality of his Lieutenant Governor, who’s telling everyone in my neck of the woods that he’ll do is best to make sure higher education isn’t completely gutted. Speaking of which, did you see this:
http://www.coloradopols.com/diary/13928/elimination-of-state-support-for-higher-ed-possible-in-2011
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Saw that last night, Jonathan. I think that’s where we’re heading, even under a Governor Hick. Maybe I’m underestimating him, but I just can’t see him trying a statewide version of the (successful) campaign he ran in Denver to raise taxes and improve services.
I hear you on the undervote. If Buck doesn’t go out of his way to pi$$ me off, he’s still gonna get my vote. I want to make sure that the Dems never try to pull this kind of crap trying to foist an underqualified, unexperienced d00d on us because he’s got the right pedigree. (But I may choose to undervote if Buck bugs me too much.)
I’m voting for Markey. She’s good (in that she’s as good as it will get for a Dem in CD4), and I think she’s going to need all the help she can get. I predict a Gardner win.
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In our local elections (a one-party polity swinging Dem in state and national contests but Repug locally, I’ve been writing in two of my emeritus colleagues for various upticket slots (mayor, muni council, etc.) for as long as I can remember. They smile wistfully when I tell them they could actually have to serve, or else pay a fine, or host a dinner, as was the case in colonial Philadelphia. In a pinch, when there were three such slots open, I’ve written in an active colleague, and I think ze has been returning the favor. On those grounds, could one not justify trying to send Tulowitzki to Washington and Historiann to Denver, or vice versa, to try to get this mess cleaned up? I hate to leave peas on my plate or blank spaces on a ballot.
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I’m not even sure how to leave a blank space on our electronic ballots. I guess I might find out. But with respect to Buck, I’m backing him simply because he’s not-Bennet. (Plus, I have to respect the man for actually making a career in a single field rather than flitting about on connections for no more than 3 or 4 dilletantish years at a job.)
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I saw Betsy Markey at the Democratic State Convention in 2008 in Colorado Springs. I liked her enough to send her $50. I’m too poor to do that now, but I wish her well. I think Gardner goes down, but Buck wins by a comfortable margin.
I get to go see our temporary mutual president while he’s in Pueblo tomorrow. Perhaps I’ll ask him the privatization question then.
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It must mean something that I originally read the last graph of that post as “Male incontinence just isn’t worth talking about, whereas female incontinence is a national joke.”
Of course that’s probably true too.
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What’s the difference? The poor will keep on getting poorer. The rich will keep on getting richer. And the middle class will continue to shrink and shrink. As a twenty something, I never thought I’d be in the position of struggling to achieve the same socioeconomic status as my parents. Are we all becoming “The Other Bostonians”? Even among my cohort at Buffalo U, morale is at the bottom of the barrel. We are all very scared. No matter who is elected this November, I hope they get people jobs.
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